It wasn’t thousands of staff petitioning their boss to let them work from home that persuaded CEOs to loosen their in-office mandates—or even war in Iran threatening global oil supplies. It was the World Cup.
In fact, two of the loudest champions of the return-to-office movement, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, are temporarily allowing employees to request remote work on match days during the 2026 tournament, according to internal memos seen by the Financial Times.
Hundreds of thousands of football fans are expected to swarm New York and New Jersey in the coming weeks to watch the soccer. But the likes of JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon aren’t giving their workers flexibility to clock off early and join the fans to watch the game.
The reason for the temporarily softened stance is that there will be significant changes to transit services and severe street closures to accommodate the massive crowds. During peak travel windows, World Cup ticket holders will be prioritized—so workers who commute on impacted routes that do not have a ticket to the match won’t be able to catch their train into the office, or home.
And it’s not just Wall Street bankers getting a taste of unexpected flexibility.
Federal agencies, publicists, government workers, and school teachers are among those logging in from home while America hosts the World Cup, according to Bloomberg.
A break from strict mandates, thanks to soccer—but Amazon isn’t taking any chances
The backtrack, albeit temporary, is a sharp reversal for two of corporate America’s most uncompromising voices on office attendance.
When JPMorgan launched its five-day mandate in March 2025, its employees swiftly petitioned their CEO to reverse it, arguing the policy “disproportionately” pushed out women, caregivers, senior employees, and employees with disabilities.
But Dimon, who has shared frustration with not being able to contact people as easily because of remote work, bluntly responded that he didn’t “care how many people sign that f—ing petition” before telling workers not to “waste time” on it.
Goldman’s CEO David Solomon, meanwhile, famously called remote work “an aberration that we’re going to correct as quickly as possible.” Soccer, apparently, is a different matter.
But Amazon, which had a tough time getting workers back to their office desks—including thousands of employees pledging to walk out from their jobs to take a stand—isn’t budging.
Instead of granting workers a brief relief from commuting chaos during the major sporting event, it is telling workers to go into the office earlier than usual to mitigate any commuting issues, as well as highlighting transit options to avoid traffic congestion, per Bloomberg.
And they’re perhaps right to be worried about loosening their grip. Research shows that despite bosses’ best wishes, remote work just won’t die.
Around half of U.S. firms asked workers to return to the office in 2023—but by the following year, only a third kept their five-day in-office mandates in place. Today, U.S. workers still spend more than a quarter of their workdays at home, according to a monthly survey by economists at ITAM Business School and Stanford University.
And that’s not changing anytime soon. Last year, 40% of roles advertised around the world on LinkedIn were hybrid, according to data exclusively shared with Fortune.
The reality is, the toothpaste is out of the tube, and it’s not going back: On average, workers globally are just spending three days of the week in the office.
